You Really Think I'm Afraid of You?

Feng Rumeng was about to curse back when Jianyue climbed on top of Lina and began yanking and tearing at her neatly combed hair.

The females nearby watched the fierce Jianyue and collectively retreated a few steps. They felt sorry for Lina, but none of them stepped forward to help.

Jianyue's hands worked left and right. "That'll teach you to run your filthy mouth! I've put up with you for a long time. Usually, when you talk about me behind my back, I can't be bothered to argue with you. Do you really think I'm afraid of you?"

Among the males who had gathered at the commotion were a few who were going to take Lina as a mate. They wanted to help her, but Hu Feng hurried over and stopped them.

Hu Feng said coldly, "Have you all forgotten the rules? If any of you dares lay a hand on Jianyue, I'll tear his legs off right now."

The males clenched their fists and turned their faces away.

In beast world tribes, it was common for females to fight and scratch at each other, but males could not interfere.

Watching the ferocious Jianyue, Feng Rumeng gave her a huge thumbs-up in her heart. As more and more people gathered to watch, she went over and pulled Jianyue back. "Jianyue, stop fighting. The mate-seeking ceremony is about to start."

Jianyue looked at Feng Rumeng's slender arms and, afraid she might accidentally break one, stopped and got up.

With a few males helping her, Lina scrambled to her feet and cursed, "A bunch of useless trash! I don't want you anymore!" As she spoke, she hit several of them.

The males' eyes filled with panic and helplessness.

"You nasty female, what's wrong with you? You're the one with the filthy mouth. What are you blaming them for?"

With that, Jianyue angrily moved to hit Lina again, but Feng Rumeng hurriedly stepped in front of her.

Lina glared at Feng Rumeng. "Ugly female, just you wait."

"Do you want another beating?"

Jianyue gritted her teeth. "Rumeng's under my protection from now on. If you dare bully her, I'll beat you to death."

Lina snorted and turned to leave. The males followed, trying to curry favor with her again.

Feng Rumeng watched Lina walk away and couldn't help sighing. The females of the beast world seemed to be treated like the moon surrounded by stars, with beast husbands all around them. But bluntly put, they were really just tools for carrying on the next generation.

"Everyone, hurry to the arena!" Hu Lie called from a distance. "The chief and the high priest are here. The mate-seeking gathering is about to begin."

Jianyue smiled at Hu Feng. "Hu Feng, thank you for what you did just now."

Hu Feng's blue eyes curved. "Let's head over too."

Jianyue nodded and took Feng Rumeng's hand. "Let's go."

In the center of the arena, the chief, Hu Zhi, announced loudly, "Today is the Fierce Tiger Tribe's mate-seeking day in the falling leaves season.

"This time, our tribe has eight females who have come of age. Warriors who don't have a female yet, take to the arena and show the females you desire just how strong you are."

The males below immediately burst into excited cheers.

"Hu Ling can finally choose a mate! The position of first beast husband is mine!"

"You? You're only at the third rank!"

"What's wrong with the third rank? Don't like it? Let's fight!"

"Come on, come on! Who's afraid of you? Get in the arena."

To compete for the position of first beast husband to the females they desired, the males had already begun fighting of their own accord.

Jianyue pulled Feng Rumeng over to stand beside the other females choosing mates. Feng Rumeng surveyed the beastmen around them.

She wanted to complain. In the beast world, not every man was a breathtaking beauty. Most could only be considered minor beauties.

She looked at the females beside her. Sure enough, the novels had all been lies.

They weren't filthy or too ugly to look at. They were all plump like Jiayue, with clean animal skins and flowing hair.

Feng Rumeng shook her head. At 178 centimeters tall, she didn't stand out among the females. After being tormented for so many days, she now weighed less than fifty kilograms.

In this beast world where sturdiness was considered beautiful, she looked like an underdeveloped male beside them. Even with her C cups, she was as flat as a little Wangzai steamed bun.

On top of that, the poison still hadn't been cleared from her body. Her skin was dark, and her features were crowded together. Even she needed a long time to recover after looking at herself. Who would choose her as a mate?

Feng Rumeng tactfully walked away. Didn't she have her pride too?

Jianyue was exchanging flirtatious glances with Hu Feng in the arena. By the time she noticed, Feng Rumeng was already leaning against a tree in the corner.

"Rumeng, what are you doing? Why did you leave? Come back here."

Hu Xiang, a female standing nearby, offered Jianyue some comfort. "Jianyue, stop calling her. The little female has some backbone. Walking away on her own is less embarrassing than having no male choose her."

Jianyue took a deep breath. "Rumeng is so thin and weak. The meat the tribe distributes during the cold season isn't enough to fill the gaps between her teeth. Without beast husbands to hunt and stock up on food, she'll starve and freeze to death."

Hu Zhen, standing on the other side, said, "It's bad enough that she's ugly, but she's so thin and weak too. No male will choose her."

Jianyue looked at Feng Rumeng, her orange eyes brimming with regret.

Feeling her gaze, Feng Rumeng raised a clenched fist and waved it at Jianyue. "You can do it!"

When Jianyue heard her, she pressed the corners of her eyes and turned away, looking at her no longer.

"Rumeng, are you a female from the sheep tribe?" Hu Yu asked.

"Couldn't you smell it?" Feng Rumeng asked in return.

"No." Hu Yu shook his head. "You don't smell like a land female, but you definitely aren't from the sea tribe either. Sea tribe females can't last even one full day on shore."

Feng Rumeng felt relieved. Perhaps it was because humans ate everything, so their body scents were more mixed. Or perhaps human wasn't an option in a beastman's sense of smell.

Suddenly, Feng Rumeng caught someone looking at her out of the corner of her eye. Across the crowd, she met the gaze of a tall beastman standing in a corner.

Hu Yun looked away first.

Hu Yu followed her gaze. "That's Hu Yun. Like Brother Hu Feng, he's a powerful fifth-rank beastman."

Another fifth-rank beastman? Feng Rumeng was a little surprised. Jianyue had told her that beastmen generally reached their limit at the fourth rank, and reaching the fifth depended on talent and luck.

"Whose male is he?"

Hu Yu folded his arms. "He comes of age today."

Whoa. He reached the fifth rank before coming of age? "Why isn't he in the arena?"

Hu Yu sighed. "No female will choose him."

"Why?" Feng Rumeng asked. "A fifth-rank male should be in high demand, shouldn't he? And he's handsome too."

"He's a crippled beastman!"

A crippled beastman? He reached the fifth rank before coming of age? His future is limitless!

Feng Rumeng looked at Hu Yun again. His features were delicate and beautiful, with silver-blue hair reaching his waist and eyes as blue as glaciers. His looks alone qualified him as a breathtaking beauty, and he had a fine figure too: broad shoulders, a narrow waist, eight-pack abs, and long legs.

Yet the females, just because he was called a crippled beast... they, they, they... Was there something wrong with their brains? What a terrible waste of heaven's gifts.

Feng Rumeng realized that her own situation was hardly any better than Hu Yun's.

Whenever she glanced at a male, he would hurriedly look away, afraid she would latch onto him and ask him to be her mate.

(●◡●)???

She shrugged, deciding it was better not to be an eyesore there, and walked toward the tribe's gate.

Outside the tribe, she looked at the trees towering into the clouds before her. Everything here was primitive: beastmen lived in caves, slept on grass mats, and wore animal skins. Males hunted, and females gave birth to cubs.

After looking around for a while, Feng Rumeng headed into the forest to see if she could find some fruit, vegetables, or something else to eat.

Her stomach kept bringing up acid, and roast meat was hard to digest. She had to save the food in her space in case she needed it later.

After walking for about half an hour, she spotted several banana trees. The bananas on them were as big as her arm.

Jianyue had told her they were called yellow-yellow fruits and weren't poisonous. The tribe had gathered them before, but the peels were too astringent, so no one ate them anymore.

The beast world really was unique. Who ate banana peels? Feng Rumeng cut one off with her dagger, peeled it, and sniffed it. It was indeed a banana.

Bananas are tropical fruit, aren't they? Winter is almost here, so how...

Then she thought better of it. This place was different from Earth to begin with, so she shouldn't make things difficult for herself with what she used to know.

Feng Rumeng picked a great many of them, piling them into a little mountain in the corner of her space. She planned to slice and dry them into banana chips, which she could eat as snacks or use to stave off hunger if she had no food in the depths of winter.

With her hands behind her back, Feng Rumeng strolled along, looking up for large leaves she could use as buckets and anything else that might come in handy.

Her cave was completely bare. Since she would be living here for a while, she needed the things she ought to have.

This was the Fierce Tiger Tribe's safe territory, so she didn't have to worry about danger.

Along the way, she stuffed anything useful she saw into her space. At last, in the direction of the stream, she found leaf buckets.

They looked like banana leaves, green and very large, shaped like sewn-up pockets, with openings that sealed themselves.

She chose the two lightest-colored ones, squatted by the stream to fill them with water, then put them into her space.

Seeing the big fish swimming about in the river, she became interested. She had dry branches, and she had a pot and bowls too. She could catch a few fish and take them back to make fish soup.

She found a vine and tied it to the handle of her dagger, then flung it with a sharp motion. Plop! A streak of silver leaped out of the water and landed at her feet.

The fish was still thrashing its tail when she pulled out the dagger. Plop, plop, plop! Three more followed. She gripped the fish by their gills and carefully cleaned them by the river.

By the time she had finished cleaning them, the sun had already shifted westward. She strung them on vines, carried two in each hand, and headed back, humming a tune.

She hadn't walked far when, "Ouch!" Something tripped her, and she fell to the ground on her hands and knees. The fish went flying.

She spat a dead leaf out of her mouth. She didn't remember anything being there on her way over.

She looked back, and her pupils trembled violently. A giant purple snake, thicker than her water bucket, lay across the path.